Veterans group seeks action to cut backlog of claims

Feb. 3, 2014
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Assistant Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs Tommy Sowers, left, speaks with a patient doing physical therapy from his home with the help of a telemedicine hookup at the VA Medical Center Dec. 19 in White River Junction, Vt. Watching is center director Deborah Amdur, second from left. / Wilson Ring, AP

by Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY

by Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY

The government's effort to cut a backlog of pending compensation claims for veterans has stalled at about 400,000 cases, and steps are needed to understand what isn't working to solve the problem, says a group representing recent war veterans.

In a report http://iava.org/battle-end-va-backlog released Monday, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) group recommends several ways it says will speed up claim processing, many of the ideas already supported and sought by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The VA called the report part of its continued collaboration with veterans groups and said it continues working aggressively to try to end the backlog in 2015.

"We have made strong progress, and we know there is more work to do," said Drew Brookie, VA press secretary.

By March last year, the VA had fallen behind in processing more than 600,000 claims by veterans seeking compensation for service-related medical problems. During a period of intense criticism that followed, the department launched an array of initiatives.

They included mandatory overtime for claims processors, installing an automated processing system and tackling the oldest cases first. Within eight months, the VA pared the backlog by more than a third to about 400,000 cases.

Claims processing is considered to be taking too long and a case backlogged if it is pending for more than 125 days, according to the VA.

The government shutdown on Oct. 1 had some limited impact on improvements, the VA said. But afterward, the number of delayed cases continued to fall slightly in November and December before increasing to just more than 400,000 in January, according to VA data.

"We're concerned that these initiatives (to end the backlog) aren't sufficiently tracked in terms of cost and benefit," said Tom Tarantino, a former Army captain and Iraq War veteran who is IAVA chief policy officer. "What that leads to is a lack of clarity as to whether they (the VA) can get rid of the backlog."

A key IAVA success last year was collaborating with comedian Jon Stewart, whose Daily Show subsequently focused considerable attention and satire on the backlog problem, lampooning the VA regularly.

"It speaks to their talent on the show that they could make something this serious both funny and accessible to the public," Tarantino said.

His group's 36-page report makes several recommendations, including:

â?¢ Measuring the success and making public the results of efforts such as expediting older cases, training processors to be more efficient and accurate, or pushing to more quickly gather veteran records from private doctors and other federal agencies.

â?¢ Urging Congress to pass laws to move processing things faster by, for example, requiring agencies such as the Pentagon and the Social Security Administration to provide necessary veteran health records more quickly.

â?¢ Changing rules to require veterans to file a more complete, computerized claim form to further speed processing. This request for a standardized claim form, while supported by the VA, is opposed by other veterans groups who say it could frustrate veterans who are computer-illiterate and reduce their retroactive compensation.

IAVA also urges the VA to learn from past mistakes by anticipating the impact of new and expanded benefits.

A VA decision in 2010, widely heralded by veterans groups, to expand benefits for Vietnam veterans suffering PTSD or hurt by Agent Orange led to more compensation claims filed.

"The move was a welcome step, yet the VA failed to plan for the impact it would have on the disability claims system," the IAVA report says.